AVweb
A series of transitions defines every pilot’s life. For Bill Anton of Satanta, Kansas, retiring after 35 years as an ag banker coincided with maturing flying desires, “from cross-country and aerobatics to fun flying out in the boondocks.” Now 72, “I’m thinking of how many more years of good flying I might have left,” he said. After more than 800 hours in the Van’s Aircraft RV-8 he finished building in 2006, “I was ready for something different.”
A Bearhawk is certainly different. He chose it by following the same path that led him to the RV-8 in 1998, when he decided it was time to build his own airplane after flying a Piper Arrow for 17 years. “I sat down and wrote a set of criteria for what I wanted. I live out in the country, have a grass strip and hangar, so I needed something that would handle grass. And I wanted something that would go cross-country” with at least one passenger, his wife, Nancy.